Clint Dempsey scored the opening goal in the final, but Brazil came from 2-0 down to win 3-2. Photograph: Dylan Martinez/Reuters

Preamble Hello. Never mind the Ides of March, the fury of a patient man and dreams in which you are being chased down Rochester High Street by your A-level English teacher, who is wearing only a pair of Coventry City socks from 1983 and shouting 'You see what happens when you misuse a semi-colon!': what you should really beware is winning the World Cup dress rehearsal.

Historically, it has been a disaster. Brazil spanked Argentina in the Confederations Cup final of 2005, but were a lopsided shambles at the World Cup a year later; France won the Confederations Cup in Korea in 2001 and were a shower a year later; England won Le Tournoi in 1997 and would have won the World Cup but for David Beckham being sent off honest a year later; and West Germany won the US Cup in 1993, only to be humiliated by Bulgaria a year later.

As harbingers of imminent doom go, this is almost up there with winning the Manager of the Month award and being in a team managed by Phil Brown.

Not that this will trouble Brazil, who tonight aim to continue their often bumpy but increasingly smooth journey to next year's finals. They have progressed pretty nicely throughout this tournament, scoring 11 goals while winning all four of their games, and will expect to finish the job against the USA, who they thrashed 3-0 in the group stages of this tournament. The US have already
used up enough luck to last four lifetimes, the raggy gits
worked two miracles in this tournament; doughty and admirable as they are, it is hard to see lightning striking thrice.

Team news Brazil are unchanged, which means no place for Dani Alves, who came off the bench to score the last-minute winner against South Africa in the semi-final, while the US make one change: Benny Feilhaber replaces the suspended
Mark
Michael Bradley.

A whistlestop tour through the
rich
history of Brazil v the US It's all about this, really, isn't it? Wonder if Kevin Keegan still thinks Leonardo was unlucky to get a red card. I'd say he was lucky not to get a red jumpsuit.

Ever wonder what might have been, where it all went wrong? Not so much in terms of, you know, your entire adult life, but specifically this tournament: Spain v Brazil would have been a classic.

"That's the Kleberson on the Brazil bench?" sniffs Gary Naylor. "It can't be, can it?" Yep, and that's Mirandinha and Roque Junior next to him. I actually think Kleberson gets a raw deal in terms of what achieved at Old Trafford. He was ultimately a flop, but for a period in the winter of 2003-04 he was playing quite splendidly on the right-hand side of midfield in a 4-2-3-1 formation. Circumstances conspired against him, but he did not hide and the quality of his technique was always apparent. Certainly he does not, in my opinion, deserve to be bracketed alongside some of the disastrous signings made by Sir Alex Ferguson in that peculiar summer of 2003, namely Eric Djemba-Djemba and David Bellion.

"Any chance of you doing some "live" chalkboards?" says Jim Harris. "That would be cool."
There is more chance of me zestily taking a rusty hacksaw to my babymaker than doing some live chalkbo
I would absolutely love to do live chalkboards, Jim, but sadly we only have the facility for Premier League games.

Sunday-night football It's pretty great, isn't it? A nice novelty, like being allowed to stay up to watch The Bill when you were a kid. Who knew that June Ackland would have such an influence on pop music in 2009?

Interestingly(ish), the two team graphics on the TV both showed lopsided formations. I've never seen that on a TV graphic before, even though many formations have not been balanced down the years (Brazil 82 spring to mind). Maybe there is now a wider acceptance that a formation doesn't need to be balanced. Anyone who has lost years of their life to Championship Manager or Football Manager has always known this, of course.

1 min Brazil kick off from right to left. Let's do this.

2 min
"Good to see that after four (five? six?) years of live blogging you've found the strike-through function," says James Andrews. "Can we expect new innovations such as linking and spell check in the years to come? Nirvana awaits."

3 min Clint Dempsey has a pop from 25 yards. Miles wide.

4 min "Aside from 1970 and 1982 (and I know that's excluding a lot), when was the last time Brazil played samba football?" wonders Gary Naylor. "Strikes me that most Brazilian teams play Christopher Samba football - functional, but not as glamorous as the shirts and the iconography would have you believe." I'd include 1986 in that, and maybe 2002. I wonder whether, as with the less brilliant Coen Brothers films, we are only judging Brazil by their stratospheric standards. Even allowing for the fact that it was a desperately poor tournament, if any other side had won as Brazil did in 2002, there wouldn't have been a solitary criticism of their style.

5 min It's been a scruffy start, which suits the US, and if anything they've had more of the ball so far.

7 min Kaka, ahead of the near post, gets a surprisingly free header from a corner, but he can't enough of it and plants it wide of that near post.

GOAL! Brazil 0-1 USA (Dempsey 10) Oh my. A lovely curving cross from a very deep position by the right-back Spector finds Dempsey, 10 yards out, and he tucks a very adroit, side-footed volley across goal and beyond Julio Cesar. That's a superb goal, and should liven things up nicely after a frankly tedious start.

13 min Robinho, on the left edge of the box after being found by Kaka, tries to pass it low into the far corner, but Howard plunges to fumble it wide for a corner.

14 min "I don't suppose you can use the strike-through function to shut that fugging buzzing noise off from the stadium that is giving me tinnitus," says Ian Copestake. "Unless I just have tinnitus." Those instruments will surely go down well with the thousands of Englishmen nursing force-12 hangovers in South Africa next year.

15 min After Brazil make a dog's breakfast of clearing a right-wing corner, an off-balance Dempsey volleys into orbit from six yards. It wasn't really a chance as he was basically upside-down when he went for it.

16 min The US know how to squeeze the eye of the needle even tighter. When Kaka came infield 18 yards out, they were seven players waiting for him, and his shot was blocked.

17 min "Hey Rob," begins Chelsea Rentz. "Jesus, could you guys of the British press at least PRETEND to be excited about the US? Sure we've had our share of luck, but we have our share of talent as well. That Deuce Dempsey who just scored to put us 1-0 up also scored the goals that saved Fulham's ass from relegation two years running. And Tim Howard has been Everton's savior for years. So a little respect would not kill the British press. Hopefully we get to face England in the World Cup and party like its 1950 all over again." How excited do you want me to be? I'm typing while doing handstands and high-fiving anyone I pass. To show just how excited I am, I might even treat myself to a few exclamation marks!!!!! How about a LOL?! A ZOMG?!!!!

19 min I don't know what's more exasperating: the noise coming out of those instruments, or the noise coming out of the BBC co-commentator Mark Bright's mouth. He's so boring that in 2007 - no word of a lie - the BBC cut to a flight simulator while he was rambling on about what day itr was or some such.

20 min Bocanegra is justly booked for putting his arms round Kaka and refusing to let him go. I haven't seen such a tense, uncompromising embrace since they stopped doing 1.45am slow songs in nightclubs.

21 min "So that's West Ham squad player Jonathan Spector providing the assist to Fulham's Clint Dempsey scoring against Brazil," says Gary Naylor. "These mid-ranking Premier League teams must be better than they look. And what's Paul Nixon doing managing the USA?" For our American readers, that last bit was a cricket joke. Don't get me started on cricket.

22 min Brazil have their most coherent spell of possession, but then Ramires punts an aimless cross wide.

23 min Don't presume that the US are happily sitting on a 1-0 lead. They are carrying a decent menace on the break, most notably through Jozy Altidore, who looks like a horrible bugger to defend against. But what the US are doing well is getting their midfielders back very quickly and very tight together in front of the back four. Brazil need to go round the brick wall rather than through it, but the inclination of their main wide player, Robinho, is of course to come infield onto that magical right peg.

25 min "I am an American, but rarely ever root for USA! USA! USA!," says Damien Neva. "However, after what they did to Spain I can't help but to support them. I mean, being a Chelsea fan is usually enough, but how better to piss of the rest of the world?"

26 min Felipe Melo works Howard, low to his right, with a good strike from 25 yards. He is booked seconds later for an apparently harmless challenge on Onyewu.

27 min A good one-two between Kaka and Maicon on the right ends with Maicon Nelinho-ing one towards goal, albeit at the near post. Howard, who had anticipated a cross, plunged back to his left to tip it wide for a corner.

GOAL! Brazil 0-2 USA (Donovan 27) What a magnificent goal! From that Brazil corner, the Americans launched a brilliant counter-attack. They were two-on-two; Donovan found Davies on the left, and he returned the ball first time to Donovan, now on the edge of the box. His first touch was delightfully quick-witted, twisting the blood of the last defender Ramires, and with his second he crunched it to the left of Julio Cesar and into the corner. Brilliant goal.

29 min I haven't seen much of this tournament, but having looked at the scores I presumed Brazil were in decent fettle. Well today they look a shambles. Robinho is brilliantly gifted but a disgraceful charlatan, and there is very little quality in their midfield. And as for the defence...

32 min "How have Brazil become such a joke defending after they were so solid in beating Argentina 3-0 in the Copa America final a couple of years ago?" asks Gary Naylor. "Gilberto Silva looks like he needs a mobility allowance and we know that the likes of Robinho and Kaka think tracking back is beneath them, but where are the others? South American teams don't really travel well do they?"

34 min This is frankly surreal. The US are very, very comfortable. Brazil are stupid enough to keep coming infield and the US keep swallowing them up. The only real threat has beem Maicon on the right, but his breaks have been few and far between.

35 min That was better from Brazil. Robinho played a glorious angled pass to the overlapping left-back Andre Santos, on the left corner of the six-yard box. He sidefooted it towards goal, but Howard was able to beat it away for a corner. It was an excellent save, but Santos should probably have gone across goal as he was at a prohibitive angle.

36 min Santos is justly booked for pulling down Altidore on the right-hand side. They can't handle his physical strength at all.

38 min Brazil win a free-kick 30 yards out and make a disgraceful mess of it. The tee-up to Felipe Melo was overhit, so he then had to pass it further wide to Maicon, whose cross was cleared. Hopeless.

40 min Jonathan Spector easily deals with Kaka, which is a sentence I never thought I'd type.

41 min "I am old," croaks John Santana. "What is ZOMG?!" Oh I've no idea, but I've seen the kids using it and I think it's a general expression of giddy disbelief.

41 min Robinho tries to surprise Howard with an early, left-footed strike from a tight angle on the left, but Howard leaps to touch it over. It was a routine save.

43 min "So, will you please fire up the Guardian's patented Excusometer for Brazil's poor performance so far?" says Mike Wilner. "Best one I can figure is that the Brazilians don't like playing on a chilly night during the South African winter. Hmmmm – isn't there going to be a World Cup final next year around this time? Oh, and LET'S GO USA USA USA!" You lot are extraordinarily graceless winners, aren't you? I couldn't
give a flying fu
care less who wins, and am rather enjoying the US's industrious, streetwise performance.

45 min Apparently Kaka just swung an arm at Feilhaber. If that's the case, he's lucky not to be sent off, even if he didn't connect.

Half time: USA 2-0 Brazil So who predicted that score then? The US have quite simply done a number on Brazil. They have been excellent and astute defensively, and Davies and Altidore have carried a genuine, if occasionally haphazard, menace on the break. Both goals were of an extremely high quality, and there is no doubt that USA deserve to be ahead. Brazil are a shower, but they've been made to look like a shower.

Half-time chit-chat

"Though gobsmacked at the sheer incompetence of Brazil, I'm very impressed with the organisation and athleticism of the USA. Players at peak fitness, who know what their individual jobs are and how that relates to an over-arching tactical system, all backed up by a good goalkeeper is a recipe that can go a long way in any football tournament - Brian Clough seemed to think so" - Gary Naylor.

"zOMG is a varient of the all-too-popular acronym 'OMG', meaning 'Oh My God'. The 'z' was originally a mistake while attempting to hit the shift keywith the left hand, and type 'OMG'. Also used in all-caps, 'ZOMG' is generally used in a sarcastic manner, more often than not a humiliating fasion. It is also used as a device for stating the obvious: 'zOMG! you r teh winz!!one!!eleven!' - Ben Jamin.

"Easily the best 45 minutes this team has played in a decade. It's often said that a person in trouble needs to hit rock bottom before being able to recover and grow. Perhaps that's what happened to this team following the earlier 0-3 loss to Brazil. It does not even remotely look like the same U.S. team. Unbelievably disciplined on defense, and shockingly comfortable with possession - by American standards, at least. Hope it lasts" - Chris Grovich.

"Watching the match while sitting next to two men with English accents in an American pub, and they don't know squat about football (I write about it for a living), but because of their accents, the crowd around them thinks they are lifelong scholars of the game. Sad. Sent from my Nokia circa 1997" - Kim Newsome [Writing about football isn't necessarily indicative of knowing squat about football, as readers of this MBM will realise]

Garth Crooks has just said "Brazil are in possession, yeah?" He's turned into Nathan Barley! This is brilliant. No doubt at the end of the game he's be saying the US are "going dark", hailing their "colossally concentrated amounts of defending" and signing off by saying "futures Gabby".

46 min The US kick off from right to left.

GOAL! Brazil 1-2 USA (Luis Fabiano 46) It took just 39 seconds for Brazil to get back into the match. It was a very good goal, too: Maicon on the right fed the ball into Luis Fabiano on the edge of the box, back to goal, and he took a touch before swivelling to strike it instantly, through the legs of DeMerit and past Howard into the corner. Another excellent finish.

48 min "Would losing to the US actually be seen as worse than losing to Argentina back in Brazil?" asks Alex Keenan. I suspect we'll never know.

49 min The US need to hold their nerve tactically, and keep two men up for the counter-attacks. If they just sit in and try to hold on to this lead, it'll only go one way.

51 min The goal hasn't, as you might have expected, precipitated an onslaught from Brazil. In fact the US have just had a decent 90 seconds of attacking. 90 seconds!

53 min The US break four-on-four, but first Davies and then Dempsey pick the wrong ball and Brazil clear the not inconsiderable danger.

54 min Brazil get a free-kick 30 yards out. This time they at least manage to collectively process that a shot at goal is a decent idea in such situtations, but Lucio's scuffed low strike hits the wall. The US are... not exactly comfortable, but still defending very well.

57 min I may well, incidentally, have described 'Michael Bradley' as 'Mark Bradley' when detailing the team news. Mea bad.

58 min An excellent save from Howard, his best yet. A deep corner from the left found Lucio, beyond the far post, and he thumped his header goalwards, but Howard leapt to his right to beat it away. Gilberto Silva, off balance and aged 77, belted the rebound over the bar.

59 min "Is anyone else more impressed with international football as played by national teams compared to that played by club teams (in the Champions League for example)?" wonders Gary Naylor. "I know there's an argument that the CL has all the best players and that national teams are essentially scratch sides, so little time is available to their coaches, but I prefer the slightly looser style of national teams compared to the antiseptic, bloodless efficiency of many CL teams."

60 min Brazil score, but it's not given! A devastating cross from Andre Santos on the left found Kaka, beyond the far post. He headed it down and, as it bounced back up, the retreating Howard punched it onto the bar and away. Brazil thought it had crossed the line before Howard punched it - and replays show they were right. That was a goal, basically. The only thing I would say in the linesman's defence is that at the time it didn't appear to be over the line.

63 min "The Brasil goalie is wearing way to much clothing," announces Millie Savard. "I don't care who you are you wear long pants at a football game, you're a [word that has a softer meaning in America than it does over here, so I'd better not print it]."

64 min It's coming. Brazil are all over the Americans like a cheap rash now. And the reason they are causing so many problems is that they have stopped trying to go through the brick wall and are now going around it, fizzing in a stream of extremely dangerous crosses from both wings.

65 min Donovan forces a rudimentary save from Cesar, low to his right, with a decent 20-yard shot.

66 min Julio Cesar makes another save, this time from Dempsey, who tried to bend one towards the far corner from 20 yards. It was fairly central, but Cesar went for the spectacular save, beating it away two-handed.

67 min A double Brazil substitution: Elano and Dani Alves on for Ramires and Andre Santos. Both are direct swaps.

68 min "Kaka seems finally to have woken up and is playing some clever angles," says Ian Copestake. "Can I have Garth Crooks's job?" You don't have his charisma. And you can ask a question in under 74 hours.

70 min Lucio is booked for dissent.

71 min "I agree with Naylor's sentiment but not with the diagnosis," says David Wall. "It seems to me that this tournament has shown how effective tactics can be, highlighting the importance of a good coach with plans. How else to explain the USA's success against Spain and in this game so far, and SA's resistance against Brazil in the semi-final. As a fan of Jonathan Wilson (rather than Harry Redknapp) i'm all in favour." Redknapp is better looking than Wilson, though.

72 min Another lovely save from Howard. Fabiano broke clear onto a subtle through pass from the inside-right position, but Howard was out to him like a shot on the edge of the box and smothered Fabiano's attempt to lift the ball over him. As he lay on the floor, cradling the ball, he screamed at Onweyu for playing Fabiano onside. Great stuff.

73 min Davies so nearly slaloms through the Brazil defence. Only the studs of the last man Lucio stopped him looking into the whites of Julio Cesar's eyes.

GOAL! Brazil 2-2 USA (Luis Fabiano 74) It had to come. The US defence have been playing from memory for the last 10 minutes, and Kaka was able to run the tiring Spector a little too easily down the left of the box before passing the ball invitingly across the face of goal. Robinho missed a sitter, shinning it onto the bar from six yards, but Fabiano was on hand to head the rebound past Howard from a couple of yards.

75 min The US make a double substitution: Altidore and Feilhaber off, Bornstein and Kljestan on.

76 min "I was wondering," begins Liben K. "Why are some of the Brazilians wearing turtlenecks or whatever that thing Dani Alves and Julio Cesar have around their necks? Is it cold down there?" I have no idea, being in an office in London, but I'll be sure to ask Guardian fashion expert Hadley Freeman about any possible new football fashion trends should I bump into her by the free coffee machine."

77 min Brazil should be getting this wide at every opportunity, because the US simply can't handle it. The quality of the Brazilian crossing - and there has been loads of it in this half - has been mixed, but the good ones have been sensational, hit with vicious dip and swerve.

79 min Brazil are having all the possession now, and you have to feel that they will win this by the end of the 90 minutes. The US have been heroic, but they look spent.

81 min Bornstein blasts wide from 25 yards. The US still look reasonably menacing on the break, and attack might well be their best form of etc.

83 min Davies goes down in the box under a challenge from Luisao. There didn't seem to anything in it, and the referee wasn't interested.

84 min Maicon stabs the ball into Fabiano, who turns DeMerit brilliantly to create a shooting chance, but DeMerit somehow makes up the ground to concede a corner.

GOAL! Brazil 3-2 USA (Lucio 84) It was only a temporary reprieve for the US. The corner was hammered to the far post by Elano and the captain Lucio, who had escaped his marker Dempsey, planted a firm header past Howard and in off the unprotected post. Anyone who doubts the importance of the Confederations Cup should see Brazil's celebrations. Lucio is seriously on the brink of tears. Elano is on his knees, pumping both fists like a man who has just heard they are recommissioning Murder, She Wrote. They are going mental.

87 min The US have nothing left to give and Brazil are almost goading them with a prolonged spell of possession. There will be no late stings here, I'm afraid.

88 min The US bring on Conor Casey, a forward, for Ricardo Clark, a midfielder.

88 min 20 sec That was a big, big chance for the USA. Donovan curled in a very good corner, but Onyewu thumped his header over from eight yards. He was under a fair amount of pressure, but he got a firm connection on it and will feel he should have done better.

90 min There will be three minutes of added time.

Full time: Brazil 3-2 USA Brazil retain the Confederations Cup after a fantastic final. The US were deservedly ahead 2-0 at half-time, but Brazil overwhelmed them with an exhilarating second-half performance. They were let off the leash by the match situation, and they were magnificent. I'm not sure if it tells us anything about what might happen when the real business starts in a year's time, but it was bloody good fun. Fans of the film 'Go' might be sniffy about Confederated Products, but this Confederations Cup has been a gem. Thanks for your emails. Night.